


In an Instant

by StrawhatsAndDelibirds



Series: Modern verse [12]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Original Character Death(s), off screen deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21923416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawhatsAndDelibirds/pseuds/StrawhatsAndDelibirds
Summary: Nothing good comes of phone calls in the middle of the night.
Series: Modern verse [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571110
Kudos: 11





	In an Instant

It was the middle of the night when his phone rang. He started getting them again after he left his partner, but he had had this conversation with Shanks already. He was a father, and even if they were back on he couldn’t simply drop everything and go do things anymore. Perona was his first priority now, and she was far too young to be left alone. 

He would make sure the message was brief and to the point. He had to get up early tomorrow to make Perona her breakfast and get her ready for daycare before he headed off to work. 

“Shanks, I don’t have time for this. It’s late.” He’d hang up as soon as he heard the whining. He already got his fair share of whining, and Shanks did not have the benefit of being his four year old daughter. 

“Is this Mihawk Dracule?” And unfamiliar voice asked. Unease set in. There was no reason for anyone to be calling him at this hour. He had clients that called him late, but never this late. 

“Yes, that is me.” If this was a client, he was going to turn them down until they called him at a more reasonable time. 

“There’s been an incident. We need you to come down to the ER as soon as you can.” His stomach twisted into knots. There were few people who would have him listed as their emergency contact. One of whom was in his house this very moment. 

That left Shanks, and his sister Mari. 

“Is the patient Shanks Akagami, or Mari Roronoa?” Had the circumstances not been so dire, he would’ve spent more time thinking about how bitter that name tasted in his mouth. 

“Mari Roronoa. Her, her husband, and their son have been in a serious car accident.”

“I understand. I’ll be over as soon as I can.” He had to think of someone to watch Perona. Someone to be in the house with her while he went to see his sister and nephew. There was really only one person, even if his childcare skills were questionable. 

“Well this is an unexpected surprise. I thought we weren’t calling each other so late at night anymore. Did you miss me so soon?” Shanks purred into the phone.

“I need you to watch Perona for me for a little bit. You’re the only person I can ask.” There was a pause. 

“Are you really sure? I’m not really great with kids.” 

“Perona is in bed for the night. You just need to be an adult in the house. Please.” He didn’t like begging, but the circumstances were dire. He didn’t know what he was going to see when he got there, but he didn’t want to expose Perona to it. The world was harsh, but he should be allowed this moment of selfishness to protect her from it a bit longer. 

“I’ll be right over.” 

While Shanks hurried over, Mihawk put quickly put on some clothes. They were not his first choice, but it was better than going in his pajamas. He worried not of anything else, and headed downstairs to watch for Shanks. 

He was followed up the walkway by one of his friends. If it was a matter of not being confident enough in his childcare skills, or that he was drunk and needed someone sober to be there to make sure everything stayed on track didn’t matter right now. Mihawk met them halfway down the walkway. 

“I’ll phone you later once I have more details. You’re welcome to sleep in the guest bedroom if you wish.” There was no time for pleasantries as Mihawk rushed past and into his car. 

The car ride lasted an eternity. It was times like these that he loathed living out of town. He knew that it wasn’t more than a fifteen minute drive, but the stress of knowing that something had happened and everything being out of his control was a lot to take in. If the radio was on, he was so far removed from the situation to process it. He wasn’t in a great state of mind to be driving, but he had little other choice. 

He rushed into the hospital, and was sent up to her and her husband’s room. It was an emergency case, so at the very least he wouldn’t have to worry about waiting on an elevator or finding the stairs. 

As he approached the room, he saw a doctor leave the room. His chest tightened when he saw the grim look on his face. The doctor turned towards him, then stopped when he saw him. 

“Are you Mihawk Dracule?” He asked. 

“Yes.” His gaze turned to the door. “This is the part where you tell me she’s passed, correct?” 

He had a feeling since the moment he got the call. He held onto a sliver of hope on his way over that she would be fine. That hope had shattered the moment he saw the doctor leave her room. The doctor looked at him with soft and sorrowful eyes. 

“I’m afraid you’re correct. We have matters that we need to attend to. But before we do that, would you like to say goodbye? It’s not exactly a pleasant scene.” Mihawk nodded, the words catching in his throat. The doctor stepped out of his way and let him past. 

Entering the room, he saw the two beds, both with the blankets pulled up over the bodies. The heart monitor had already been unplugged, and all that could be heard was the faint sound of motion out in the hallway. He approached her bed, and pulled down the bloodstained sheets. 

He could see the various points where they had tried to put her back together. It was beyond unreasonable, but he had wished so desperately that they had tried a little harder. Mari was so young. One of the few people in his life that he hadn’t cut ties with entirely, and now her body lay on the hospital bed. His hands held hers, the same hands that he had to hold to pull her away from some stupid fight she wanted to get in with the bullies a few grads above them. The same hands he held as he gave her away on her wedding day. 

The worst part was that there was still lingering warmth. Warmth that made him foolishly hope that she would weekly open her eyes, and everything would be okay. But he already knew that would never happen. Somehow this all seemed very like her. Mari, his little sister that was always running off ahead without him, running off into the afterlife, leaving him in the world of the living. 

He stayed there until the warmth had faded entirely, leaving nothing but a corpse. Mari was gone, and he was going to accept it. He had no other choice. He gently put the hand back on the bed, and covered her. No. Covered the body back up with the blanket. He went over to the other bed. He couldn’t claim that he had any love for Momojuro in life. They were two individuals who clashed, but remained civil enough for the sake of the person they both loved. 

There was no use holding onto feelings like this anymore. He placed his hand on his bed. Hopefully his gratitude for making his sister happy would carry on into the next life. That’s all Mihawk could ask for at this point. 

The doctor was waiting for him as he exited the room. It seemed like a waste of his time to wait for someone to finish grieving, but Mihawk was in no real mood to argue about it. 

“I’m sorry to have to bring this up so early on in the grieving process, but this is about your nephew.” He had been so wrapped up in the events of this evening, that he had forgot about his nephew entirely. The limits of his grief were already being tested on this night, but he did not want to see how much further he could push it. Putting on a strong facade for his daughter later was already going to be hard enough as it was without factoring a third death into this. 

“We need to keep him overnight to watch him, but he’s in stable condition.” Finally, there was some good news this evening. “But there’s still the matter of guardianship. Your sister and her husband didn’t have a will. Neither of them were in contact with their parents, so as the uncle you’re the best candidate for guardianship.”

He hadn’t thought as far as who his nephew would go to. The deaths had been at the forefront of his mind until moments ago. He was already a single father, but he supposed he had little other choice. 

“There’ll be some time between now and the time we’re legally allowed to pass him over to you. There still has to be background checks and they need to see your house to make sure that it would be safe for a child. But as it’s going through you’re always welcome to visit.” 

“May I see him now?” Tonight had been a lot. He wasn’t one to feel emotions to such a degree, yet here he was in the hospital, on the verge of tears. 

“Of course. Follow me.” 

There was a tense silence as they went up the elevator. There wasn’t much Mihawk wanted to say, and he could feel the doctor understood his feelings on the matter. They approached a room in the children’s wing. In the little crib was his nephew, sleeping quietly. 

Slowly, he walked over to the crib. Going against what he knew about infants, he picked his nephew up. He had gotten bigger since the last time he saw him. He had forgotten how fast they grew at this age. But the most important part to Mihawk right now was that he was warm and breathing. It was amazing that something as minor as that could mean so much in the moment. 

As infants do when you pick them up, Zoro stirred. With his big eyes, he looked up at him. Mihawk wasn’t one to notice traits so small like this, but Zoro definitely had his mother’s eyes. Holding him was a little like having a small part of his sister with him again. As the infant cried in protest to being held, maybe a few tears of his own fell from his eyes. 

How shameful it was to cry like this in a public space. Children were susceptible to feelings such as these. It was selfish of him to cry when the infant in his arms had had his entire world shattered. Yet he stood here wallowing in his own grief, adding onto this child’s. It was selfish of him.

He gently put Zoro back into his crib. He cried a few moments more, before settling back in for the night. 

“I suppose I should get to work on that paperwork.” The sooner he could get home, the sooner he could sleep. Lord knew he needed the energy for when he had to sit Perona down and explain to her what had happened. And for when he turned a guest bedroom into a nursery for Zoro. Then he had to get to work planning their funerals. He knew they had some friends that would help

  
Oh how he dreaded the weeks to come.


End file.
